Mr. Chairman –Professor Sam-Amoah;
Osaaberima Kwasi Ata II, the Paramount Chief of Oguaa Traditional Area;
The Divisional Chief, Nana Kweku Ennu III, Apewosikahene,;
The Provost of College of Humanities and Legal Studies, Prof. Dora Edu-Buandoh;
Other Provosts, Deans of Schools, Lecturers;
The Chinese and Ghanaian Directors of the Confucius Institute;
Managers of Industries and Businesses;
Distinguished Headmasters and Headmistresses; Head teachers, invited guests present for this second anniversary celebration, especially our students from University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast Technical University, partner senior high schools, primary schools; Friends from the media.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I will like to take this opportunity to fore mostly congratulate the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Coast and also to thank the University, from the Vice- Chancellor through the various levels of the university management for the decision to host the Confucius institute on the university campus. I am certain that they will look back and pat themselves on the back for making the decision to collaborate with Hunan City University, to establish the Institute here at the University of Cape Coast. Further, I would like to especially thank the Ghanaian and Chinese Directors of the Institute. From the short documentary we watched, we would come to the realization that the Confucius institute has an aim set to promote Chinese language and culture which they are determined to achieve. The Directors also work closely with Prof. Edu-Buandoh, the Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies, I wish you all the best in the years ahead.
I would assure the Institute that we, the management of the Central Region of Ghana, will continue to do the things that will ensure a very peaceful and safer environment that would aid in the growth of the Institute from strength to strength, to be able to achieve the objectives set for themselves, which includes teaching of the Chinese language and culture to various institutions as well as the local teacher training program. From the documentary, the Institute has worked hard to achieve the great success in the teaching of Chinese language, it is our fervent hope that in the coming years, teaching of Chinese culture will move onto a new level of cooperation between Ghana and China. More so, we hope that the local teacher training course program will be enhanced to enable more of our young people acquire the necessary language training and to spread the teaching of the Chinese language in more educational institutions of Ghana. The Central Region has been a major example of the good relations between the Peoples Republic of China and Ghana and if I decide to name some of the benefits we as a region have derived from the cooperation between the two countries, we would spend the entire day here. We can only hope that Ghana and China will continue to build on this cooperation and strengthen this relations.
I was here a year ago and saw what the Institute was doing and seeing today’s
documentary, which summarizes the achievements of the Confucius institute in two years, drives me to question myself what is the driving force behind their success?
The Chinese story is a very refreshing one. Four decades ago, most developing countries sorted for assistance from other countries other than China. But today, there is a major shift to seeking assistance from China. We therefore have to ask ourselves what has made them this much successful? From my perspective, not looking too far, at least there are two major contributing factors that I have seen: one is their culture of discipline and the other is their culture of determination to achieve results and to succeed. Our younger generation have become so engaged and accustomed to the culture of indiscipline, which deters an individual to deviate from the path of achieving great success. it is therefore of importance that we invite the culture of discipline and commitment in all our endeavors so as to achieve better results for ourselves, our communities and our country. As we sit through this occasion and celebration today，we have already experienced the function. We must engage our minds on these things. Recently, certain persons on social media and within some circles, have expressed concerns and special sentiments against China for the efforts they are making . But then I ask myself once again：“what are the basis for these sentiments?” Why would anyone rather not learn from what has made China so successful but be sentimental about them? It doesn’t make sense at all..
China has succeeded and achieved a lot within a short period of time. Today, China is the second largest economy of the world, with a strong military power to name but a few. They are therefore consolidating their success by spreading across and reaching out to the rest of the world. By so doing, the rest of the world would better understand, welcome, appreciate their culture ，buy their products, and would form relations with them. China presents a great lesson to us as Africans, as Ghanaians. We as a nation must learn from China’s success story, we must learn from their drive to success. To do that, there is the need for us to assess and revise our ways of doing things. Example, last year when I was invited, I was told that the program will start at 9 am, and indeed, when I got here, all was set and after a few initial settings had been done, the program started. Again this year, when the invitation was extended to me, at 9am I instructed my protocol people to be here to see if they were ready and when they arrived, they said Mr. Minister, its already set. When I got here, everything was in place. So I ask myself, why is it that during our own celebration, we will probably start an hour or two later and then ，all we will do is to come and render apologies for the late start of the program？.
Therefore，we need to develop the culture of discipline, the culture of determination to succeed, in order to attain great success.
On this auspicious occasion, I wish to congratulate the institute, for the two-year milestone, for how far you have come and to wish you the best going into your future.
Thank you!